'We’re happy that the merger process had come to fruition, and we look forward to moving forward.'

- Robert Laska,
President,
Board of directors of
New England Newspaper
and Press Association

NENPA: Born
on the first of July

Continued from Home Page

“Members can expect a new, vibrant organization that will exemplify the traditions of our industry,” Laska said.

The organization’s name, determined by the NENA-NEPA steering committee that oversaw the merger before it became official, will stick for now.

The NENPA board held its first official meeting July 1 via a telephone conference call. All board members were invited to join the call.

Now that the merger is official, the board will turn to the details and nuts and bolts of the new organization that need to be finalized, Laska said.

As previously reported in the Bulletin, NENPA’s offices will be located in the former NEPA offices in Dedham, Mass., on a satellite campus of Northeastern University. Laska said the former NENA office, which was located in rented space in Salem, Mass., has been mostly cleared out.

Tne interim advertising director for NENPA will be Phil Lucey, who had been advertising director for NENA.

Laska told the Bulletin that the board would be putting together committees to review the operational processes of both former organizations and determine how NENPA will work everything out, including details on annual conferences and awards.

NENPA’s executive board is made up of NEPA and NENA members. Mary Pat Rowland, managing editor of Foster’s Daily Democrat of Dover, N.H. and former president of NEPA’s board of directors, is vice president. Oreste “Rusty” D’Arconte, publisher of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass., and former NEPA treasurer, is second vice president. NEPA’s former vice president, Will Rowlands, former editor of the Westport (Conn.) News, is NENPA secretary. Terrence Williams, publisher of The Telegraph of Nashua, N.H., and former NENA secretary, is treasurer.

Members at large on the NENPA board with ties to the NEPA board include Alan Baker, publisher of The Ellsworth (Maine) American; Phillip Camp, publisher of The Vermont Standard of Woodstock, Vt.; Thomas Kearney, managing editor of The Stowe (Vt.) Reporter; William Densmore, director and editor of the New England News Forum Journalism Program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Mass.; Nancy Doniger, managing editor of Hersam Acorn Newspapers of Ridgefield, Conn.; Geordie Wilson, publisher of the Concord (N.H.) Monitor; and Sean Burke, publisher of The Herald News of Fall River, Mass., and the Taunton (Mass.) Daily Gazette. All but Baker are members of the most recent NEPA board, and Baker is a former member.

Gary Farrugia, publisher and editor of The Day of New London, Conn., and a member of the former NEPA and NENA boards, is a member at large for NENPA.

Members at large on the new board from NENA include William Kennedy, chief operating officer for the Dow Jones Local Media Group and former president and publisher of The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass.; William Sherman, classified advertising manager of The Newport (R.I.) Daily News; David Costello, vice president of information technology at the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine; Mark Smith, publisher of The Caledonian-Record of St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Peter M. Haggerty, publisher of the Daily Times Chronicle of Woburn, Mass.; and John Christie, former publisher of the Morning Sentinel of Waterville and the Kennebec Journal of Augusta, both in Maine.

A NENA seat for the new NENPA board that had been open has since been filled by Eliot White, publisher of the Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn.

Laska said a merger of NENA and NEPA had been discussed in years past, but didn’t get off the ground. He and the board are glad to look to the future now that everything is official.

“We’re happy that the merger process had come to fruition, and we look forward to moving forward,” Laska said.

POSTED 7/2/09